"We have provided leadership in our industry," Murdoch wrote in a memo posted on the News Corp. website this morning, adding: "Most important, throughout this endeavor we have continued to do what we do best: engage our audiences around the world with the most compelling content."

The director of News Corp's Global Energy Initiative Liba Rubenstein said, "This has never been an editorial mandate, and there is a very strong division between our internal operations and our editorial and creative outlets."

"It's never been about trying to speak with one voice across our company," she added, emphasizing that while Fox is the most well-known News Corp entity in the U.S., it is just one of the company's many businesses across the globe.

But Sammon's email wasn't a matter of editorial opinion -- it was a matter of scientific fact.

If Murdoch is to be taken seriously on his company-wide commitment to "content of the highest caliber" on environmental issues, he cannot simply look the other way when his news staff is ordered to cast doubt on climate science.

On December 7, President-elect Donald Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Media should take note of Pruitt’s climate science denial, his deep ties to the energy industries he will be charged with regulating, and his long record of opposition to EPA efforts to reduce air and water pollution and combat climate change.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked -- or considered -- nearly a dozen people who have worked in right-wing media, including talk radio, right-wing news sites, Fox News, and conservative newspapers, to fill his administration. And Trump himself made weekly guest appearances on Fox for a number of years while his vice president used to host a conservative talk radio show.